BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Ends AIR FESTIVAL 2010, 5/2

BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange will close the AIR FESTIVAL 2010, featuring BAX's Artists In Residence luciana achugar (dance), Abigail Browde (theater), Victoria Libertore (theater), and Jennie MaryTai Liu (dance) May 2nd.

The AIR FESTIVAL 2010 represents the culmination of this year's residency program. Join us as we celebrate the work of these four exceptional artists.

The festival marks the ending of the residency year that has included valuable open rehearsals, shared showcase performances and meaningful audience feedback. Join us for this final stage of development and witness the depth and excitement these artists have about their work and their process.

PLEASE NOTE:
Online ticket sales close at 5:00 pm on Friday the week of the show.
Box Office opens 30 minutes before show time.
Childcare services will be available during Sunday's shows at BAX. Childcare tickets must be purchased by 5:00 pm the Thursday before the show.
Tickets to "PURO DESEO" need to be purchased through The Kitchen's website, and have their own pricing structure.

ABOUT THE WORK:

LANDS AND PEOPLES
Jennie MaryTai Liu in collaboration with Sean Donavan

Lands and Peoples uses choreography and deep play to ruggedly weave together distinct mythologies about heartbreak. Lying at the intersection of a medieval Welsh tale, a third world memoir, and a British nationalist rant, Jennie MaryTai Liu and Sean Donovan explore structures that transform a person, a country, and a performance piece: witch's curses, immigration, physical disguise and the theatrical devices used to merge multiple stories into one. Original music by Wes Matthews digs into tropes of 'classical' and 'tropical'. Felix and Dexter Ciprian's fragmented set displays a culturally cross-bred 'front room' as a worship space made up of mundane objects made sacred by human use.

GIRL MEAT
Victoria Libertore

According to legend, Countess Elizabeth Bathory is the most prolific female serial killer in history. Drinking and bathing in the blood of her victims, she tortured and killed hundreds of women. Intrigued by this true story, solo performer Victoria Libertore channels Bathory's essence with hilarity, a dose of camp and a hint of insanity. All the while exploring why as a society we find naked, twisted-up, bloodied bodies of women so damn fascinating. Direction by Rosalie Purvis. Dramaturgy by Jen-Scott Mobley. Set design by Jono Binono.

THANGKS FOR NOTHIN
Abigail Browde

THANGKS FOR NOTHIN delves into the lapses of memories of our daily lives and the beauty of banality. Memory is a skill and This is a living catalogue of things-done-badly and the slippery quality of things we have forgotten. They are trying to improve, but in the meantime Abby and Marisa are only so-so.

PURO DESEO
luciana achugar in collaboration with Michael Mahalchick

PURO DESEO, which translates both to "pure desire" and "nothing but desire", looks into our essential need to move, to set free a new "uncivilized" self, questioning western assumptions of beauty and organization of the body. With PURO DESEO, achugar and her collaborators give themselves the challenge of creating a work where the form is a manifestation of the instinctual drive to create- hoping to bring the audience towards a deep connection with their own impulses, rather than serving them an isolated, commodified form to digest. bee in the lower east side.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

LANDS AND PEOPLES

English-born, Hong Kong-bred choreographer Jennie MaryTai Liu makes performance work that uses theater and situation to frame dance, and uses dance to uncover the intrinsic mystery of everyday human relations. The New York Times has called her work 'Lower Animals' (commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop, 2006) "a wild, strange ride... built by the true stuff of science, namely experimentation." Her work has been commissioned and presented by Dance Theater Workshop, and she has performed her work in numerous US and International venues, most recently the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Movement Research at the Judson Memorial Church, American Dance Festival, WUK (Vienna), Ballet de Lorraine (Nancy). She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, The Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and is currently a resident artist at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and HERE Arts Center. She has had the pleasure of performing with Big Dance Theater, Witness Relocation Company, Cathy Weis Projects, Faye Driscoll and Nellie Tinder. She trained as an undergraduate at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU, and received her MFA from Hollins University.

Sean Donovan is a New York actor, dancer, and writer. He is a member of both Witness Relocation Theater Co. and the Bessie Award winning Jane Comfort and Company. His original works include Not Unclear at NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing, Sublimate at Galapagos Art Space, Se Vende at the FAE Festival in Panama, and The Climate Chronicles at BAX. In New York, he has performed his own work and with others at such places as The Kitchen, PS122, The Duke, The Ontological Hysterical Theatre, The Ohio Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, La MaMa ETC, Theatre for the New City, Dixon Place, and Galapagos Arts Space. He received his BFA in Acting from New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing. He has trained and performed internationally in France, Holland, Romania, Poland, Russia, Panama, Canada, Thailand and Japan working with the highly acclaimed Ildi! Eldi of France and Sankai Juku Butoh company of Japan.

Felix Ciprián is a sculptor, costume designer, performer, living in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Miami, Florida, Felix grew up both in the Dominican Republic and New York City. He studied Theater at NYU's Tisch school of the Arts, graduating in 2005. Felix's design for theater has been featured at the Theater for the New City, Center Stage, 45 Street Theater, Flamboyan CSV Theater, Natives Theater,Linhart Theater, and La Mama. Since 2006, Felix has begun investigating the drama and narratives in discarded objects. He sifts through the wreckage to form emotionally laden sculptures which have an odd, and even quirky presence. His work has been featured in the Deitch Art Parade, Real Art Ways,Chashama, Studio 717, Art Gotham, Ephemorptera Art Space and the Stephen Savage Gallery.

Dexter Ciprián is a photographer, architect, filmmaker, living in the Bronx, NY. Dexter was born in Boston, Massachussets; raised in the Dominican Republic and New York City. He studied at the University at Buffalo, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Architecture. In 2006 he studied for six months at Henry Van de Velde Instituut in Antwerp, Belgium with a focus in Flemish art and architecture. At Yale School of Architecture he continued his studies receiving a Master of Architecture in 2009. His work and study have ranged in medium covering photography, film, architecture and graphic design and have taken him to London, Antwerp, Rome, New Delhi and Mexico City.

Composer Wes Matthews is steadily gaining wider recognition for his work, with music praised for "passion and subtlety, marked by an arresting sincerity" (Lisa Bielawa) and "startling introspection, masterful development, and tremendous beauty" (Andrew Nogal, writing for Minnesota Public Radio). Performances of his piece Terraces ("promising...moody...delicately threaded" [Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe]) by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, in addition to performances of pieces at the 2008 Bang on a Can Festival and the Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam, are among recent highlights for the emerging composer. Originally from Central Illinois, Wes graduated with honors from the Master's degree program at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with jazz trombonist/composer Bob Brookmeyer, composer Lee Hyla, pianist/composer Anthony Coleman, and percussionist Bob Moses. He has received awards from the Boston Microtonal Society, the BMOP/NEC composition contest, the NEC Contemporary Ensemble Composition Competition, and the Japan Society of Boston. Wes has attended artist residencies at the Wellesley Composers Conference and the Atlantic Center for the Arts and was selected to participate in the 2007 Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

GIRL MEAT

Victoria Libertore has created four solo shows (though she does get along with people): My Journey of Decay, (Dir. by Rosalie Purvis), The Should Dream (Dir. by Ryan Migge), stalk(her) (Dir. by Kimberly I. Kefgen) and Camille: The Forgotten Artist (Dir. by Sara Laudonia) . She's lived in NYC for the past 12 years and performed her work at venues such as Barrow Street Theatre, BAX, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, HERE, New Dance Alliance, Joyce SoHo, PS122 and Six Figures Theatre. Libertore has also performed her work in Boston, Philadelphia, Provincetown, Montreal and Toronto. She curates and hosts variety shows as her incarnation of Liza Minnelli. She teaches performance and burlesque workshops using her unique approach of archetypal energy work. (Performance Workshop: Artists in Action at BAX in March). She has a B.F.A in Theatre from Otterbein College. Libertore lives in Brooklyn where she also gives intuitive readings.

Rosalie Purvis has directed plays, readings and dance theatre pieces at the Brick, the Henry Street Settlement, Manhattan Theatre Source, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Playwrights Horizons, the Culture Project, the Atlantic Theatre, Dixon Place and LaMama ETC. among others. Girl Meat is her second collaboration with Victoria Libertore. Purvis holds a BA in dance/literature from Bard College and an MFA in theater directing from Brooklyn College. She currently teaches literature, writing and theatre at Lehman College, Pace University and John Jay College. She also co-directs the theatre and creative writing programs at the Putney Summer Program.

Jen-Scott Mobley is a theatre practitioner, teacher, and scholar who has performed regionally and off-off Broadway, primarily in Shakespearean roles but also in her one-woman show As I Like It. Holding an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy and Theatre Criticism and will complete her doctorate in theatre studies this spring, Mobley has worked as a production dramaturg and written study guides for Expanded Arts, BRIC, and BAM. She is an Artist-in-Residence for the White Horse Theatre Company. She teaches dramaturgy and script analysis at Marymount Manhattan College. Many thanks to Rosalie, Vic, and BAX for the opportunity to work on Girl Meat.

Jono Lukas was born and raised in the swampy woodlands of north east Florida with life focus around him being for animal and wild land conservation. His perspective comes from that of the woods. Lukas' primary training is in blown glass art and metal sculpture, having studied at universities and craft schools on both sides of the US and Western Europe. Also currently teaching glass blowing classes at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. Having just made Brooklyn his new home, Lukas is proud to be making his debut in New York City creating set design for Girl Meat.

Jeffrey Sturdivant is a Brooklyn based costume designer for art, film, and theatre. Sturdivant's recent projects include "Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish", "An Affirmative Act", "The Man from a Dying Planet", and a video for band Tigersapian.

THANGKS FOR NOTHIN

Abigail Browde has been creating original plays and performances since 2004. Most recently she co-created with Michael Silverstone THIS TIME TOMORROW, staged in a church basement. She is a Resident Teaching Artist at The Performance Project @ the University Settlement (where she created THE HOME, BY JOSEPHINE, a virtual house tour with pictures and songs) and a 2008-2010 Theater Artist-in-Residence at BAX, where she made IT'S HELL IN HERE. She has been a core member of Witness Relocation since 2005. She is the co-creator of WHAT HAPPENS TO ISABELLA POUDRADOR (www.isabellapoudrador.com) and a contributor to the SuperGroup performance group, based in Minneapolis.

Marisa Lark Wallin is a Brooklyn-based performer, writer, and general maker-of-stuff, with a BFA from the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU. She has worked with Goat Island Performance Group and Dog and Pony Theater Company in Chicago. In New York, she has most recently been seen in Andrew Dinwiddie's The Accursed Items at The Ontological-Hysteric, Les Freres Corbusier's Dance Dance Revolution at The Ohio, and Dan Moyer's New Beulah at the Manhattan Repertory Amazing Play Festival, and with Ms. Browde in IT'S HELL IN HERE at BAX.

PURO DESEO

luciana achugar is from Uruguay, and moved to NY in 1995 after graduating from CalArts. From 1999 to 2003, she worked collaboratively with Levi Gonzalez. Since 2002 achugar has created six independent works which have been presented in Uruguay, in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center and throughout NY at venues such as Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, PS 122, PS1 Museum of Contemporary Art, CANADA Gallery, Dixon Place, etc. Her last work The Sublime is Us premiered at DTW in October '08. She received a BESSIE award for her first evening-length show Exhausting Love at Danspace Project (2006). In November 2008 she accepted a BAX10 "Passing it on" Award from artist Tere O'Connor, and in April of 2009 she received an LMCC President's Liberty Artist Award. achugar was a 2008 NYFA fellow in Choreography and a 2008 recipient of Building Up Infrastructure Levels for Dance (BUILD), a program of New York Foundation for the Arts. She was a 2007 Choreographic Fellow at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, FSU; and a 2007 Sugar Salon Artist. She was a 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, a program funded by the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York Community Trust. She received a MAP Fund Grant for the development of PURO DESEO , and most recently she became a Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2010 Grantee. This work will premiere at The Kitchen at the end of April 2010.

Michael Mahalchick is a Brooklyn, NY based CANADA artist. In the past he has had the pleasure and the privilege of working with David Galbraith, Discoteca Flaming Star, Jeremy Wade, AUNTS, Marcos Rosales, Jocelyn Shipley, Larisa Velez and Brian Belott. He was a co-curator of the 2009 Movement Research Spring Festival and was last seen performing as a worker bee in the lower east side.

Madeline Best designs dances, installations, lighting and video. She is the production manager at the Chocolate Factory Theater and works freelance as a production manager, stage manager, and lighting designer/supervisor. Her project of the moment is a short dance video. She is a recent graduate of Bennington College, grew up in Durham NC and currently lives in Astoria NY. She has worked in various ways with Brian Rogers and the Chocolate Factory Theater, David Ferri, Eiko and Koma, Nick Brooke/The Cabinet, Parsons Dance, Big Art Group and more. This summer you can find Madeline working at the America Dance Festival.

 

The Artists-in-Residence Program is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and with private funds from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program, Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the New York Times Company Foundation Fund for Midsize Theaters, a project of ART/NY and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, established in the New York Community Trust by the founders of The Reader's Digest Association.

PURO DESEO received additional support from the MAP FUND.

BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange is a professional community arts center located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Artist opportunities include the Artist in Residence program, the Space Grant program, the Subsidized Rehearsal Space Rental program, Professional Development Workshops for Artists, and more. For more information about BAX and its opportunities for performing artists please call 718-832-0018 or visit us on the web at www.bax.org.